“Listen Learn Adapt” Project Launches in Bucks

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Article published on: Saturday, 10 July 2021

Buckinghamshire Mind is delighted to announce the launch of an exciting new collaborative project called “Listen Learn Adapt”.

Working in partnership with four other Buckinghamshire based charities (Wycombe Wanderers Sports & Education Trust, The Oasis Partnership, Age UK Buckinghamshire, Citizens Advice Bucks) the project’s ultimate aim is to enable all five organisations to better serve members of our community from minority ethnic backgrounds.

The Listen Learn Adapt project has been kindly funded by the Buckinghamshire Wellbeing Capacity Fund jointly commissioned by The Rothschild Foundation, Heart of Bucks and The Clare Foundation.

The grant was created to respond to the challenges Covid-19 has had on the wellbeing of Buckinghamshire residents, especially those who have been, and will continue to be, disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and the related effects. The one-off grant was offered to deliver a holistic project that works to create new capacity to support wellbeing across the county and make Buckinghamshire’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic sustainable, with reach into all communities.

The Listen Learn Adapt project partners came together in recognition of the fact that many people from minority ethnicity backgrounds have been disproportionality affected by the catastrophic consequences of the Covid virus from health, community and economical perspectives, but may be hesitant or reluctant to approach local services when they find themselves in need of support.

Our organisations recognised that our engagement levels with people from minority ethnicity backgrounds don’t correlate with the make-up of our local community when looking specifically at ethnicities, and we wanted to make strides to remedy this. As such our collective organisations have been funded to undertake a project that will allow us to:

Listen: We will seek to capture our community’s thoughts and experiences with regards to engagements with local charities.

Learn: We will use the information captured from the community research process to effectively appraise and challenge our current service offerings and how appealing they are to people from minority ethnicity backgrounds

We will also develop a learning report that details our findings with regards to better engaging minority ethnicity individuals and communities. This will be shared with other local charities and relevant groups.

Adapt: Using the insight achieved via the Listen and Learn aspects of the project, we will seek to make relevant adaptations to our respective service provisions in order to ensure that barriers to engagement are minimised, and that all offerings are culturally relevant, inclusive, accessible and fit for today’s modern and diverse world.

Whilst the scope of this project is time limited, Buckinghamshire Mind, along with the other project partners (as well as the funders), believe that this is merely the beginning of a county-wide collaborative journey of discovery – working in broader partnership with individuals, groups and communities – that will ultimately make Buckinghamshire an even better place for all people to live, work and flourish.

Buckinghamshire Mind Chief Executive Andrea McCubbin had this to say about the launch of the Listen Learn Adapt project:

“We are excited to be involved with this innovative project with other charity partners in Buckinghamshire. We look forward to learning how we can adapt our service provision to ensure that they are fully inclusive and accessible to everyone in the diverse communities we serve.”

Please note that effective engagement with minority ethnicity individuals and groups is critical to the success of the Listen Learn Adapt project. Buckinghamshire Mind, as well as all the other project partners, would love to hear from anybody who would be willing to take part in the community research process (which is being undertaken by M·E·L Research, one of the UK’s leading social research and behavioural insights consultancies) that will begin in July 2021.

In order to express an interest in getting involved (or to ask questions/make comments) please feel free to contact Clare Samways, the Listen Learn Adapt Project Coordinator, on [email protected]. You can also find out more information about the Listen Learn Adapt project by visiting the dedicated webpage hosted by lead project organisation The Oasis Partnership: LLA WEBSITE PAGE

Finally, please note that as part of the Listen Learn Adapt project the partners are seeking to recruit a number of people to fill the following roles: